他不是什么好东西
“he was no good.”
THE DIALOGUE REEL
我就知道
“I knew”
他 不是什么好东西
“he was no good.”
我太了解他了
“I know him too well.”
Direct spoken expression in this communicative setting.
Referring to a human being as a 'thing' (东西) in the negative ('not a thing' or 'not a good thing') is a standard spoken insult in Chinese to deny their moral decency.
LEARNING CHUNKS & PARTICLES
no good / a scoundrel / bad news
A highly colloquial, derogatory expression used to strip a person of respect by metaphorically referring to them as a thing.
VOCABULARY & EXPRESSIONS
Parallel Spoken Cinema Scenes (语义近邻切片)
“He is not a good person.”
“You can tell at a glance she's no good.”
“he's obviously not a good person.”
“look very suspicious.”